


The Second Coming of Castiel

by ShippedMyPants



Series: Playground Friends [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angels, Cute, Destiel - Freeform, Eventual Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Impala, Playgrounds, Psychic Bond, Reunions, Swing Set, Teen!Cas, Teen!Dean, X-Men References, false miracles, kid!Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1207960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippedMyPants/pseuds/ShippedMyPants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel finally returns to Earth much later than Dean anticipated. Cas brings problems and a holy mission with him; Dean's faith is not the only one that needs to be restored.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Second Coming of Castiel

**Author's Note:**

> I have gotten a lot of great feed back on my first piece of this series Hot Lava Monster, and hopefully I'll get even more on this one :)

Castiel realized he was going to have to be in Heaven longer than he expected and would not be able to return to his Earth friend as soon as he would have liked. Though, that did not stop the older Winchester boy from praying. 

 

_‘Hi Cas! Guess what Sammy did today! He said his first word! It was “Ba-Ba” I think he was tryin’ to say Bobby. He’s been crawlin’ around too, Bobby an’ Daddy say he might start t’ walk soon, I’ve been helpin’ him practice standing on his feet, but he can’t do it on his own yet. You should come an’ play again soon, Bobby says it’s gonna start getting’ cold outside an’ I won’t be able t’ go to the park. Will you be able t’ find me if I’m not at the park? Bobby’s house is around the corner and down the street in case you need to come knock on the door if I’m not at the park an’ you wanna play. Tell Mommy and God I say hi!’_

_“Heya Cas, Sammy took his first steps yesterday. He got from the coffee table to me! I’m starting school pretty soon and I’m kinda scared cause I don’t know if the other kids’ll like me, and I don’t know if I’ll be good at learnin’ and stuff. Bobby says I’ll do fine. We are gonna live in a house near Bobby’s so I can go to school, an’ when Daddy is workin’ me an’ Sammy will stay with Bobby, it was his idea. I wish you could come play with me again, or maybe ev’n go to school with me! It’d be easier if I knew someone already, an’ I bet you know lots cause you are an angel.’_

Castiel watched from Heaven as Dean started school and his father John slowly became more involved in the hunting world, leaving for longer trips and constantly trying to find the demon that killed his wife. Prayers came from Dean once or twice a week, and when Castiel heard the familiar greeting from Dean in the corner of his consciousness, his full attention would be directed to the updates and musings of his friend, and always there was the request for him to “come play” again down on Earth. Each time Dean requested his presence, Castiel felt a pang of longing and regret. He was unable to return to Earth without orders or permission from his superiors, but he missed the company of the human child, it wasn’t expectant or harsh like that of his brothers and sisters. Dean had explained best friends as similar to siblings but “you don’t get mad at each other as much,” Castiel did not fight with his brothers and sisters but he was often displeased with the way they handled some situations with humans on Earth. 

_‘Hey Cas! Today was my first day of school and it was so easy! I was nervous that it was gonna be hard but the other kids can’t even read yet! Bobby has been teaching me for forever now, I have a couple cool books ‘bout dragons an’ stuff. Dragons are so awesome, have you ever seen a dragon? Man, I wish you were here, I bet you know a ton of stuff! Well, it’s dinner time, talk to ya later.’_

_‘Hi Cas, today is really boring. Daddy’s been on a work trip for day so we are at Bobby’s for like the billionth day in a row. Sammy is being annoying, its too cold outside to go play, and there’s nothing to do. I wish you were here, we could play inside an’ sneak cookies upstairs. UGH, you’d know what we could do.”_

Castiel received many prayers of trivial matters and small updates on life from his blond haired friend, his favorites were the prayers Dean didn’t know he was making. When Dean would imagine Cas and himself playing pirates or cowboys and Indians, Castiel could see it too and it created a bittersweet longing to return to his friend. Although, Castiel was careful to never let his brothers and sisters know about his feelings toward the young boy, he knew it would not go over well with them that he was developing emotions for a human. 

As the years passed the prayers came more sporadically, instead of weekly prayers Castiel was lucky to get monthly prayers. Dean had started to move around to different schools with his father’s work, it wouldn’t be long until he was no longer ignorant of his father’s real work. Then there was the prayer that came when Dean was in fourth grade.

_‘Cas, I told someone today that I was friends with an angel, with you. I thought that other boys had their own angel friends, but I guess not. He laughed at me and told me to stop being such a baby, that I had dreamed you up when I was little and still believed it. I got in trouble when I punched him in the nose, but when my dad came I didn’t wanna tell him that it was because the other boy was making fun of my angel. Did I dream you up? You never answer these prayers anyway… I wish you could give me some sort of sign… but I guess that might be too much to ask. Still wish you would come down and play with me, I remember how much you liked the swings… you never did tell me if it was like flying.’_

That prayer broke Castiel’s heart. Dean’s faith in him was wavering, and without faith Dean would no longer be able to pray to him. Castiel would still not be receiving orders to Earth any time soon, in the human understanding of time, and he knew it would be a disappointment to his friend, but hopefully Dean could hold out faith until he could return to Earth. Castiel did not know how early Dean’s father, John Winchester, would introduce his son to the world of hunting.

The day Dean learned about his father’s real job was the day he stopped believing in angels. With that much evil in the world, how could he possible hope for the goodness of an angel? He had always watched out for Sammy but now he had an even greater cause for caution and protection. From motel to motel he had tried to make each place a home of sorts for his younger brother, it was a place where no demon or monster was allowed to come and disrupt the peace he created for Sam. The last prayer he sent up to Cas was half-hearted with the dregs of faith that he could muster up.

_‘Bye, Cas.’_

There wasn’t enough faith for Castiel to hear Dean’s final prayer. 

Years went by without a prayer from Dean. Castiel suspected it had something to do with Dean’s introduction into the world of hunting but he was no longer receiving prayers to find out. The last prayer had been about his friend’s growing tiredness of constantly being on the move and never being anywhere long enough to have a friend. Castiel felt like a failure, he was not one hundred percent sure, but he believed that being a best friend entailed being there for your friend when they need someone. 

 

**********

 

Finally, Castiel received instruction to go to Earth with his garrison and observe the state of humanity’s faith in God. The angel had a feeling that his superiors meant for them to not take a vessel and to remain unseen by what Uriel described as “hairless apes,” but Castiel would not pass up his opportunity to observe the faith of the one human that meant anything to him. It had been ten years since Castiel’s last visit according to Dean’s time, the child with golden hair and innocent green eyes was now sixteen and had experienced more evil in the world than most teens his age, some that they could scarcely imagine outside the context of a cheesy horror movie, but for Dean they were all too real. 

Castiel found the world weary boy at a public high school in a small town on the outskirts of Iowa. 

The angel hid his presence, observing his aged friend for a while to try and see how he had changed. Dean now wore an oversized leather jacket, a small amulet necklace (which Castiel was sure Dean didn’t know the real power or use of, why would Dean be trying to find God?), his blond hair was shorter and more styled than the mop he used to have, but the biggest difference was the way he carried himself and reacted to the other students around him. He was more bowlegged than he was as a child, but now he walked with a loping arrogance that gave him an air of self-declared superiority. He winked at the girls he passed and lifted his chin with a smirk at the boys. Castiel didn’t know what to think about these changes.

At the end of the school day when Dean was at his locker, Castiel decided to approach him. 

“Hello, Dean.” 

Dean turned around at his name to see a boy about his age, skinny, shaggy dark hair, with bright blue eyes that he vaguely remembered but he couldn’t remember from where. “Who are you?”

“It’s me Cas…” Dean still looked confused, “Castiel. I am an angel of the Lord.”

Recognition dawned in the green eyes and then quickly hardened into anger and disbelief. “Okay, ha ha, how the hell do you even know about that? I haven’t talked about that since like fourth grade. Are you from Sioux Falls? Have you been talking to my brother?” 

Cas squinted and tilted his head to the side in a way that made him look like a confused kitten. “No Dean, it is me. I told you I would come back even if it would be a while before I could return.”

Dean punched his closed locker with enough force to dent the metal, “Ow! This is a stupid joke, asshole. Fuck off.”

Castiel reached out his hand and touched Dean’s bruising fist with two fingers, the pain disappearing from the knuckles, “Dean.” 

The green eyes widened in shock and then rose to search the blue eyes for answers. The only one he found was what the angel had been saying all along. “C… Cas?” Castiel smiled as the truth finally sunk in, “Damn it Cas! What took so long?” Dean looked around hurriedly to check if anyone was paying attention to their interaction, “You know what, come with me. I have to pick up Sammy and then we can talk in the car.” 

Dean grabbed Castiel’s wrist and dragged him toward the exit and out to the parking lot toward an old black 1967 Impala. Dean threw his backpack into the back and got into the driver seat when he realized Cas was still standing uncertainly by the car. “Come on, get in. Sammy gets out of school in 10 minutes.” Cas opened the passenger door and hesitantly took his seat. “Have you ever been in a car?” Dean asked.

“No I have not. Customarily I fly whenever I have to travel.” 

“You really are an angel” Dean muttered mostly to himself.

“Of course I am. Did you think that would have changed from the last time we were together?” 

“No man, I just thought I had made you up when I was little. Like an imaginary friend or whatever.” Dean glanced guiltily over at Cas, “So what brings you back?”

“I have received instruction to observe the state of humans’ faith. I do apologize for the amount of time it took for me to receive permission to return to Earth.”

Dean gave him a sharp look, “Yeah, what gives? You said you would only be gone for a ‘while’ when I was _six_ , for a six year old that is like, three months max. Even now a while means a year or two at the most.” 

Cas turned to face Dean, “Time for angels is very different than time for humans. I have been alive for millennia, the only vessel available when I touched down was a child’s when I met you. I took the same vessel this time so that you would have an easier time of recognizing me, and I also already had permission from this boy.” 

“Permission?”

“Yes, angels have to have permission from their vessels before they can enter them unlike demons who can take whomever they wish. I believe you have come in contact with a demon or two already?” 

“Once, when I was in Oregon with my Dad. The black eyes were a bit creepy.” Dean grimaced and then glanced to Cas, “You don’t change eyes do you?”

“No, but when I use a larger amount of grace they may glow a blue/white light.” 

“Hmm,” Dean considered this for a while concentrating on the road, “Well we are almost at Sammy’s school, don’t tell him you are an angel, I’ll just say you are a friend from school that I have to do a project with and we can drop him off at the motel before we find a place where we can actually talk.”

Castiel nodded as they pulled into a middle school a few blocks from the high school where he found Dean. Sam was waiting right inside the front doors and ran out when Dean honked the cars horn, his un-buttoned plaid shirt flying out behind him. When he saw the dark haired boy sitting shotgun he slowed to a walked and opened the back door. 

“Who’s he?”

“Friend. We have to do a project for English. I’ll drop you at the motel and then we have to go to the library.”

Sam scoffed as he settled in his seat, “Really? You, at a library?”

“Shut up.”

 

************

 

Driving around the neighborhood near the motel Dean spotted a small park with a playground and he pulled into its parking lot. 

“Well this seems fitting,” Dean joked trying to break the silence that had taken root in the car since Sammy got out and locked himself inside the motel room. 

“Yes, I met you at a park similar to this one.” 

“Well… do you wanna go sit on the swing or something? There’s no one around.” 

“Alright.” 

They moved from the car to the two swings on the edge of the park. There really was no one around, it was a little too cold and overcast for people to be out and about, and definitely too cold for kids to be on the playground. Once they were seated on the swing, the silence continued, both not knowing where to start.

“I never did answer your question, swings are a bit like flying when you swing forward,” Cas started.

Dean took a deep breath and hesitantly replied, “Cas… I asked that ten years ago. Where did you go?” 

“I went to Heaven, Dean.” Castiel was confused. Wasn’t that obvious? Where else would he have gone? 

The blond rested his elbows on his knees and let out a soft chuckle, “I guess I should rephrase that. Why did you take so long to come back?” 

This was a more difficult question, Castiel was not sure if humans could comprehend that time was different for angels, but if any human could, it would be Dean. “I am a celestial being, time moves differently for me that it does for you. I don’t even really have a time line as you would say. But if I were to try and put it in terms of your concept of time, I was only gone for about a year.” 

That brought Dean up short. He was so upset with the angel for leaving him on this hell hole of a planet with its monsters, demons, and worst of all, human cruelty. Growing up he had prayed so often to his friend he came to think of as his guardian angel, but as he slowly fell into the life of a hunter, he began to question how there could be any goodness in a world so full of evil.

“Dean, why did you stop praying?” This was the question Castiel most wanted answered. He missed the quiet tingle in the back of his mind alerting him to a prayer being made and the sound of Dean’s mind greeting him to tell him of life on Earth. The angel didn’t know he had been looking forward to them until they stopped coming. 

“You really don’t know? Cas…” Dean looked up into the angel’s blue eyes that were staring back like they were looking for the answer in his soul, “You never responded. I met you once when I was six, it wasn’t hard for me to believe that I had made you up. And then with the hunting, I even though you could have been some kind of monster. You just disappeared and I guess my… faith, or whatever, went with you.”

Cas kept staring into his eyes searching for some kind of answer when he finally came to his own conclusion, “So you’re saying that if I could have responded you would not have lost faith?”

“Yeah I guess so.” 

“I have an idea of how I could connect myself to you, allowing for my thoughts to enter your mind, but it would require your consent.”

“What are you thinking?” Dean sounded slightly hesitant at the idea of Cas’s plan requiring his _consent_. 

“If you allowed me to insert a very small amount of my grace into you, I would be able to reach out to that part of myself and connect with your mind,” Castiel explained.

“Alright… I guess that sounds like a good plan. How do you ‘insert the grace?’” 

“I would just be required to touch a part of your body, it will be probably leave a small red mark, but that will disappear in a day or two. Do I have your permission?”

“Yeah, lets give this a try.” Castiel reached two fingers out to Dean’s forehead when Dean swatted the hand away. “Dude! Not the face! You said it was going to leave a mark. Here,” Dean stood and removed his jacket and pulled the short sleeve of his black t-shirt up, offering Castiel his shoulder, “I don’t mind a small red mark on my shoulder, nobody sees that, but there are gonna be some questions asked if I have a weird red bump in the middle of my face.”

“As you wish.” Castiel laid his whole had on Dean’s left shoulder and closed his eyes. A blue light shined faintly from beneath his hand and Dean looked on with curious attention. Dean felt a strange warmth enter his shoulder and move toward his center, curling up behind his sternum. He gasped at the tingling sensation that quickly filled his mind and then faded to the back corner before disappearing. When Cas pulled his hand away there was a red mark on his shoulder about the size of a quarter, and Dean still felt the plesant warmth throughout his body. “Why don’t you try?” Castiel offered.

“Alright.” Dean looked Castiel in the eye as he prayed for the first time in years.

_‘Hey Cas, haven’t done this in a while. Can you still hear me?”_

The angel could hear Dean’s voice in that special corner of his mind he had come to think of as ‘Dean’s Corner’ but his eyes widened in surprise when he could also feel the emotion behind the words, there was hesitation and a sense of anxiety that the angel wouldn’t be able to hear the boy. _“Yes I hear you, Dean. I can also sense you are feeling worried, don’t be, you are just as clear as you were when you were a child.”_

It was Dean’s turn to be surprised, he felt the tingle in the back of his mind again and Cas’s voice coming into his thoughts along with a feeling calm and reassurance. “Man, you are like an angelic version of Professor X.”

“Who…?”

Dean rolled his eyes and Cas picked up on a feeling of amusement coming from Dean’s mind. “I guess it makes sense that angels don’t read comic books. I can tell you about it later.” 

Just then they heard a rustle of wings in front of then and a young woman with long, straight chocolate brown hair appeared in front of them. Dean thought she might be part Hawaiian. Her brown eyes narrowed into a glare at him but then she turned to addressed Cas with confusion in her eyes. 

“Castiel, what are you doing here? We were instructed to observe humanity to find the source of what is destroying faith.” She turned back to Dean and seemed to look within him rather than at him, “This one has no faith in our Father, but strangely, faith in you.” 

Dean’s ears turned red at the statement that he had more faith in Cas than in God, which shouldn’t be surprising since he wasn’t one for church but still, the statement made his self-conscious. 

“Noel, this is my friend Dean Winchester. I will be back to the search shortly, but I made a promise last time I came to Earth to see Dean again. Now if that is all, I’m sure you can carry on with the search without my leadership for a few hours, you are interrupting.”

Castiel’s obvious dismissal of the female angel earned him a look of shock that quickly hardened into professionalism but she was still obviously put off. She looked like she had some feathers ruffled (which Dean guessed might actually be the case) as she gave a curt nod and with another ruffle of wings, she was gone. 

Castiel sighed, “I guess I should get back to leading my garrison in the search.”

“Your garrison? Isn’t a garrison like an army thing?”

“Yes, it is a group of soldiers. I am the leader of a garrison of 350 angelic warriors.”

Dean’s eyes widened, “Wow, I didn’t know you were so high up in command, I thought a warrior of Heaven would be scarier I guess.” 

Cas turned to give Dean a sharp glare, “You don’t find me intimidating?”

“Not really, the first time I met you, you were just a little kid with cute black wings, I guess I still kind of see him when I see you. Anyway, what is this thing destroying faith? Anything I can do to help?” 

Castiel rolled his eyes at the topic change but considered the help this Winchester could offer, “There is something spreading doubt in God amongst the humans on Earth. It isn’t uncommon for the numbers of the faithful to fluctuate over time, but we have never seen numbers decrease this rapidly. We believe there is some sort of monster or demon pretending to perform miracles to show humans that God is gone, which isn’t false, but it’s not good for humans to know that because they believe that he was never real to begin with.” 

“Wait, God is… gone?” 

“Yes, he no longer resides on his throne in Heaven, but that doesn’t mean he never existed. He is very real. I guarded his throne before he disappeared.” Castiel sighed deeply, obviously the thought of his Father’s absence still bothered him a lot, Dean refocused the conversation. 

“So what can I do?”

“As I said, we believe whatever this creature is, it is making humans believe God never existed through preforming false miracles. If you watched for anything like that in newspapers and what not and let me know, it might lead us to him faster.”

“So just pray when I get a hit on the fake-miracle radar? Can do. And uh, I can still talk to you when it isn’t a monster update, right?”

Castiel’s warm smile was accompanied by a feeling of joy and friendship in Dean’s mind. _“Of course Dean. I prefer those prayers over all others.”_

Dean was not blushing, his cheeks and ears just became very warm, “I, uh, I prefer those ones too. I kinda miss havin’ someone to talk to who isn’t Sammy, Dad, or Bobby.”

Castiel suddenly jerked his head away and focused on the horizon that was slowly growing dark. After a moment he let out a sigh and refocused on Dean, “There has be a new development on the search and I am needed.” He stood up and Dean followed suit. “This is where I leave you Dean, but not for as long this time, I will be able to check in much more often now that I am stationed on Earth until this problem is solved.”

Dean smiled and went in for a hug before the angel knew what was happening. Castiel stiffened at the contact but then relaxed when he remembered this was how they had parted the first time he left, he wondered if it would become their customary way of departing. 

“See ya, Cas.”

“Goodbye, Dean.” 

Dean stepped back and Cas disappeared with a rustle of wings. As he walked back to his car in the fading dusk, he felt a new sense of purpose now that he had a mission from Castiel. He would have one extra thing to look for in the newspaper as he and his father combed for cases. But the memory of Castiel’s smile when he told Dean about how much he like to hear Dean’s prayers kept creeping back into Dean’s thoughts. He had to force the dopy smile off his face before he walked back into the motel; he didn’t want Sammy to be suspicious about what had happened at the “library.”  


**Author's Note:**

> In Hot Lava monster, I had Castiel in a vessel that was a child. He told Dean that Gabriel was in charge of him and that Gabriel was teaching him how to take a vessel. The way he told Dean this implies that Castiel was a child in his angel form as well as in the vessel but he isn't he is his fully matured angel-self and the way he explained his relationship with Gabriel and reasons for being on earth was a little off so that Dean would be able to understand. 
> 
> The angel Noel is loosely based off of a girl I knew in middle school (Noelle). She was originally based off one of my closed friends, but she asked to not be written in to my stories so I am respecting her wishes. I guess it works out because Noel the angel seems kinda bitchy which fits that girl from middle school better than my friend anyway. 
> 
> So this story has the beginnings of a real plot! Its going places! I might read it "Oh, The Places You'll Go" so it believes in it's own future as much as I do. The next one will have lots of cute fluff and might even start to hint at some smut! So keep a look out for that.  
> Lots of love and thanks to Hayley to reads my writing before I post it and helps me find the words when they escape me <3


End file.
